You are here

campaigns

Nominations and applications are now open for the 2019 brandUP , a free 2-day intensive marketing and communication workshop co-presented with Full Circle Fund . One of last year's nonprofit participants Frailty Myths has now had some time to...Read more.

Now in its eighth year, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season each November by encouraging global giving via social media. It’s a collaborative effort between nonprofits and civic organizations, small businesses and large corporations—not...Read more.

Nominations and applications are now open for the 2018 brandUP , a free 2-day intensive marketing and communication workshop co-presented with Full Circle Fund . Last year's Awardee Root & Rebound has now had some time to reflect on the...Read more.

November 28th will mark #GivingTuesday’s sixth annual day of giving. The holiday—which follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US—kicks off the charitable season. Brands, influencers, and everyday folks come together with a single purpose in...Read more.

BrandUP 2018 Participant, Frailty Myths

Nominations and applications are now open for the 2019 brandUP, a free 2-day intensive marketing and communication workshop co-presented with Full Circle Fund. One of last year's nonprofit participants Frailty Myths has now had some time to reflect on the experience, so we sat down to chat with their Co-founder and Director, Erinn Carter, to provide helpful tips to this year's participants.

1. What is Frailty Myths currently focused on as an organization?

As an organization entering our third year of operation, we’re working to solidify our foundation as an organization, working to share our vision as to how to change the world with an even larger audience, and discovering new donors to expand our impact to more communities. From an institutional perspective, this means streamlining and defining how we speak about our theory of change, our strategy for creating that change, and discovering new ways to partner and collaborate with other organizations to amplify our mission.

We’ve partnered with a number of organization, community groups, and leaders to create dynamic spaces for inspiring our participants to challenge inequality, patriarchy and what exactly a leader “looks like.” From our three part series with community garden Pollinate Farms in the heart of the Fruitvale community in Oakland, CA to our “Lift As We Climb” aerial ballet workshop with internationally renowned Bandaloop performers, Frailty Myths has looked to expand our voice while maintaining a strong connection to our core mission, which is inspiring a new generation of women, trans, and gender nonconforming folks to embrace leadership and smash the myth of frailty.

2. Through a communications lens, what have you been focused on over the last year and how is that supporting your overall organizational goals?

We’ve worked hard to share the story of Frailty Myths, both our founding and our theory of change that we accomplish through our work. We’ve worked on this from a number of fronts:

1. Establishing a voice online in our social media accounts and how we interact with our audience. This includes creating original content, engaging questions from our audience, and engaging with organizations and groups that share our overall mission of empowering marginalized communities around the world.

2. Participating in media opportunities, including podcasts and local media to share our message in new audiences. We worked to create a press release regarding our work and developed a database of outlets that overlap with our mission and began to reach out to them.

3. Streamlining our visitors experience on our website. This meant doing a lot of editing to summarize our mission and also working to envision what the journey that each website visitor may go on, depending on their entry point to our website.

4. We’re celebrating March and “Women’s History Month” by going on a nationwide tour, bringing Frailty Myths workshops to the community in five cities across the United States. We’ve worked over the past few month and leading up to the tour amplifying our mission to new audiences across the country and connecting with allied organizations in different cities.

As a new and growing organization, getting an opportunity to get new eyes on our work and our vision was invaluable. We spent so much time as an organization essentially speaking to ourselves; getting an opportunity to get educated and passionate eyes on our product and getting feedback as to how we could make it clearer and more effective was amazing. We changed a number of things after the workshop. We think a lot more now from the perspective of what our participants or outsiders journey may be in experiencing us for the first time. Can we make understanding what we do at Frailty Myths clear, concise, and to the point? What is our theory of change and how can we share that vision with our audience? After the workshop, we made those questions central to our communications mission.

4. Did anything change in your communications and processes from before to after your brandUP experience? How have you integrated the work into your marketing materials and planning?

We’ve mentioned some of the specific ways in which we’ve incorporated this work into our marketing materials online with our social media profiles. We’ve also streamlined and focused our filmed marketing materials, including a new commercial advertising our mission and impact.

5. Was there anything that was unexpected or surprised you that came out of the work we did together?

I think the continued communication that I’ve had with so many of the people from Rootid and Full Circle Fund after the workshop. The fact that I’ve been able to email and ask questions impressed me so much. There’s a real sense that the folks that have created this program believed in the projects that were selected to be a part of BrandUP, even beyond the few days that we spent together at the workshop.

6. In what ways do you think we can use this process to help organizations like yours further their missions?

As a new organization, we’re primarily focused on what we need to improve, how we can streamline established processes and make our own that fit with our goal and how we operate as an organization. As such, we’re pretty focused on what we’re doing wrong. Having this process, which not only helped to highlight what we could do better, but also showed us spaces where we were succeeding, was really inspiring for me.

I’d also say that the process of being able to pull back from the day to day grind of operating a new nonprofit to be able to refocus on what we’re doing and why we’re doing was so valuable. Prioritizing the bigger picture of “Why” and what are the larger steps to successfully manifesting our “Why” was really helpful in reminding us of what our process is and why were have dedicated our lives to creating a new space for change to blossom.

When I think about BrandUP in terms of the return on the invested time, it’s an impressive experience. Almost more than a year later, we’ve implemented ideas from the workshop into our day to day practice, we’re continuing our relationship with many of the organizations and leaders we met in the workshop, and we’re thinking about ways to use this work in the future. If people are willing to invest the time and effort, the BrandUP experience is definitely worth it.

7. What advice would you give to this next co-hort so that they can be prepared for and get the most out of their experience?

The “homework” for the workshop is really important. I know that many organizations like mine are just a few people doing a incredible number of jobs at the same time. But taking the time before the workshop to think about different donors and their specific donor journey, solidifying your theory of change, and connecting with each staff member that will participate at the workshop beforehand feels paramount to getting the most out of the workshop. With so little time to think about really dynamic questions, you’ll want to spend as much time being able to think about new ideas and new strategies, not questions about the direction of your work or your foundation vision.

Heifer International offered a goat mask printout and encouraged donors to take selfies or goat-o-bomb (photobomb) others. The photos were then posted on Giving Tuesday, using #GoatSquadGoals, accompanied by a quick line underlining their philanthropic efforts. Not only did this effort entertain and validate Heifer’s mission, it also highlighted the key role goats play in ending poverty around the world.

TomTod celebrated Giving Tuesday with a twist, using the day to thank their supporters. The nonprofit spent the day delivering balloons, food trays, and swag bags to local donors—strengthening their relationships and earning media attention for their programs.

Baker Industries launched a social media campaign (#500Lunches) to provide non-perishable lunches for those in their work rehabilitation program—people with disabilities, recovering substance abusers, individuals on parole, and the homeless.

Employees at the Wendy’s Restaurant Support Center wrote holiday card messages that were donated to the Ohio State University Star House, a local drop-in shelter for homeless youth. Each holiday card contained a Wendy’s gift card.

Camp K, a charity camp for children and adults with disabilities, celebrated their 50th anniversary with a boxing gala on Giving Tuesday. Using the hashtag #KO4CAMPK (Knockout for Camp K), they received sponsorship from local businesses, sold tickets to their supporters, and asked for donations from those who could not attend.

The Pratt Library of Baltimore knows nothing gets attention like a little friendly competition. Following an NFL game between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals, Pratt challenged the Cincinnati Public Library to see which library could raise more on Giving Tuesday (#BookBowl). The executive director of the “losing” library agreed to dress up and perform a reading from a book written by a local author from the winning city.

Our Takeaway

With a little creative marketing, these groups rocked Giving Tuesday and promoted some great causes! If you need help with your next campaign, be sure to drop us a line.

5 Elements of Great #GivingTuesday Campaigns

Now in its eighth year, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season each November by encouraging global giving via social media. It’s a collaborative effort between nonprofits and civic organizations, small businesses and large corporations—not to mention the driving generosity of families and individuals. (Over $380 million was raised online, this year alone!)

Want to be a part of that magic? We’ve revisited some of this year’s most memorable campaigns and taken note of five elements they all had in common:

5. They were strategic.

Example: Facebook, in partnership with Paypal, matched donations to US-based nonprofits (up to $7 million) on #GivingTuesday. Organizations using Facebook’s ‘Charitable Giving Tools’ paid no fees and were treated to new features, such as recurring donations and updated reporting. By leveraging the social media giant’s offer, nonprofits raised over $125 million.

4. They showed passion.

Example: BarkBox, a canine-centric subscription service, made their followers a simple but powerful offer on #GivingTuesday: For every new subscription, they would donate a BarkBox to a rescue/shelter pup in need. To emphasize this opportunity, they added a video of homeless dogs receiving new treats and toys.

Needless to say, hearts melted and wallets opened.

3. They joined forces with likeminded partners.

Example: Normally, a dollar donated to Feeding America provides at least 10 meals to families in need—but on #GivingTuesday? The Kroger Co. Foundation stepped in to double the impact in support of their Zero Hunger | Zero Waste program. That makes at least 20 meals provided for every dollar raised!

2. They teamed up with influencers.

Example: HGTV superstars Drew and Jonathan Scott—in partnership with Lyft and Nissan—marked #GivingTuesday by taking their celebrity friends for a spin in Habitat for Humanity’s cleverly branded vehicle. The ‘Give Habitat a Lift’ campaign tapped into the popularity of in-car videos as celebs discussed what home means to them and the importance of Habitat’s mission.

1. They were creative.

Example: Just in time for #GivingTuesday, World Vision introduced a new, interactive pop-up shop in New York's Bryant Park. Activities like pictures with a goat, a working water pump, and an African virtual reality experience allowed families to see and feel the mission firsthand. They were then invited to shop for gifts that give back, with all proceeds going to benefit people served by World Vision around the world.

Our Takeaway

#GivingTuesday is all about finding fun ways to collaborate for the greater good. If you can harness that spirit of giving, you can meet (and surpass!) any fundraising goal.

BrandUP Award Winner Root & Rebound - 1 Year Later

Nominations and applications are now open for the 2018 brandUP, a free 2-day intensive marketing and communication workshop co-presented with Full Circle Fund. Last year's Awardee Root & Rebound has now had some time to reflect on the experience, so we sat down to chat with them to provide helpful tips to this year's participants.

1. What is Root & Rebound currently focused on as an organization?

Founded in 2013, Root & Rebound (R&R) is a California-based reentry advocacy center that creates leading-edge solutions to one of the most pressing challenges of our time - mass incarceration - working to help people break out of poverty into freedom and economic opportunity, and alleviating the heavy personal and societal costs of our bloated and broken justice system.

Nationally, we are growing our footprint and initiatives, with 7 state-specific toolkits & beginning a national expansion strategy that will bring our model to key, high-need states in the coming years.

2. Through a communications lens, what have you been focused on over the last year and how is that supporting your overall organizational goals?

R&R has invested heavily in our PR and Communications strategy on both national and community levels to raise awareness about second chance opportunities through partnership and coalition building, educating employers, policy makers and journalists, and engaging corporations like Facebook to support this work as we explore our model for scale.

We are also in the process of building the first ever reentry legal wiki and sharing it across the country.

Our experience with Rootid allowed us to think critically and holistically about the ways in which we communicate with our key stakeholders - donors, partners, and people directly impacted by incarceration. It allowed us to strip back our assumptions and dive into the way these people live their lives and how we could engage with them on a journey of discovery about Root & Rebound.

Now, we go much deeper and we have concrete engagement strategies for our key stakeholders whereas before we would keep a more broad and sporadic approach to our communications and PR and community connection.

4. Did anything change in your communications and processes from before to after your brandUP experience?

Our communications strategy has definitely expanded to include larger views of our audience and the ways we can help them to understand and see the value our work. Additionally, having realized the importance and potential in our communications, we have now made it a priority to align both the programs and development team in our communications strategy. Now our communications strategies are wider-spanning and effective for both teams.

We have also more deeply understood the impact of storytelling by launching a 48,000 barriers campaign in conjunction with Valerie at Rootid at our first ever Empowerment Summit in Spring 2017, which allowed us to gather quotes and stories that we can use going forward. This has deeply informed our social media communications on an ongoing basis

5. How have you integrated the work into your marketing materials and planning?

On the programs side, we have:

Leveraged Rootid’s design support to streamline our programs materials with new hotline cards, updated program flyers, and the ongoing creation of partnerships packets. With the hotline cards, we can easily pass out digestible information to the people we serve, at clinics, trainings, etc. As we ramp up our direct services across the state, this level of synthesised information is more critical than ever.

We are also re-creating the R&R website to more strongly reflect our growing programs and make sure that information is easy to read, digestible, and clear in how users can engage with our services.

We have also heavily leveraged Rootid’s consulting advice to promote our paid services to partnerships across the Bay Area and have secured three new long term contracts to date.

On the fundraising side, we have:

Committed to engaging more deeply with our existing individual donors and increasing our network even further, by creating a Circle of Friends to support R&R either through donations, leveraging their platform, or their skills. Over time, we hope to build a key initiative that draws people into the organization and creates long-term ambassadors for our work.

More heavily focused on sharing our stories of success to our wider audience via newsletters and social media to show the work we are doing and the impact it is having.

Finally, we have streamlined our communications strategy between the programs and the development team so there is a cohesive calendar and content strategy between them. We have also hired two Americorps VISTAs - one Development and Communications VISTA and one Community Partnerships VISTA to execute on this strategy and build our communications content.

6. Was there anything that was unexpected or surprised you that came out of the work we did together?

I think it’s easy to come into a consulting project saying you have an urgent need for concrete materials and plans and you need your online website hits to increase by X%, but the biggest value add for us was the thought partnership and the focus on approach of listening, hearing, and sharing of experiences. Rootid showed us ways to go beyond a communications strategy, printed or web content, and instead get to the heart of our mission and impact which lies directly in human experiences of reentry and the daily barriers they face.

By focusing squarely on elevating those experiences, we were able to come up with a thoughtful and strategic communications strategy that aligned with our mission and that brought the organization’s development and programs team together to streamline our work, elevate the voices of those we serve, and really demonstrate what really matters to the wider public - which is breaking down barriers to opportunity for all Americans with criminal records.

7. In what ways do you think we can use this process to help organizations like yours further their missions?

I think the most valuable piece for our team was having strategic thought partners that could dig into our model and where we were and where we were trying to go and help figure out simple steps and best practices to achieving those goals. E.g. focus on your stakeholders journey before thinking about creating materials tailored to them.

A helpful way to approach it might be to focus on some big questions upfront that might be even higher level than communications strategies necessarily and then spend time digging into ideas and resources on a macro level. A lot of Rootid’s value add can be the ability to see above the micro day-to-day of a nonprofit professional’s workload and allow them the space and support to engage critically and thoughtfully with the challenges they are facing and how they can get to the end result in new ways.

8. Since we are changing the format of BrandUP to now be a 2-day intensive covering the material we did but with 12 nonprofits, what advice would you give to this next co-hort so that they can be prepared for and get the most out of their experience?

Ask as many questions as possible! Don’t be afraid to share the small and big questions and the real challenges, time and capacity constraints you face in communicating with your stakeholders. Chances are Rootid will be able to draw on experiences with other nonprofits that have wrestled with the same challenges and draw on their own expertise and experiences to bring solutions to life.

Be ambitious! Talk about where you want to be as an organization and what you’re trying to achieve in the next 5 -10 years, every step you take now with your communications is a step further to making that impact a reality.